The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a Game-Changing eBook App

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The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a Game-Changing eBook App

The transition is so fast. It has been less than 18 months that we have had iPads on our kitchen tables, engaging our children in the backs of cars and in doctor's offices, and they've become the screen we now turn to before the television. Still, the game can change so quickly and with the recent release of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, the film makers at Moonbot Studios have waltzed into the eBook space and laid down a challenge. That challenge is a short film that has been turned beautifully into an app-style eBook that will have readers rethinking their engagement with the device as a storytelling machine.

Traditional children's book publishers have been carefully and cleverly converting their most-loved titles, or exploring original iPad content in a way that makes the illustrations we see in books interactive. Moonbot Studios has done the same thing with its film. What makes it a game changer?

Well, sometimes in the shifting sands of technological evolution it doesn't take much to shift expectations. The iPad itself only changed things from a child development perspective because it had a bigger screen size. This app, this story, changes things because of the new approach to content. Sure, Disney and Pixar have put their stamps on 3D animation on the iPad, but Moonbot Studios does it with a whimsy and emotion that only appear in Pixar short films these days. And that will mean a lot to children and adult readers alike. The quality of the graphics and interactivity with the images is high. Beautiful audio prompts, like in one scene (these are not pages as we'd traditionally know them; their animation makes them more) all you hear is a knocking, and you eventually realize you need to touch the door to open it and let Morris out. Simple, but effective and a playful discovery that adds to the story of scattered books that can help you fly.

In a nutshell: gorgeous animation, inventive and playful interaction and quality content.

It changes the game mostly though because Moonbot has still gone for the old "page turn" option as a way of progressing through scenes, which says "I am an eBook" to readers. I would have loved it if they'd found a new and more engaging (less papery) way of progressing through the story, but given that books are so central to the plot it makes sense for it to be presented in that way.

The app includes interactive elements we are familiar with like letting you draw on the screen, but then changes it up by having the words or scribbles blow away unexpectedly and — for my seven year old — delightfully. There's also a piano for you to play with an actual score. There are lovely filmic perspectives on each page, hand drawn illustrations that fade to 3D digital animation and the interactivity makes you feel like you are part director of your own animated short.

Moonbot Studios has produced an app that is truly short animation meets eBook. This is where reviewers will start talking about the production values of eBooks, the quality of the score and the transition not between pages, but between scenes. Of course, not all eBooks need to go this way — we need as many and varied styles and formats as the technology offers — but at $4.99 this app offers great value.